Our existing President, Simon Hughes, will end his term of office on December 31st - the election of his successor is a chance for you to decide who will be, in the words of the Constitution, "the principal public representative of the Party and Chair of the Federal Executive".

It would be absolutely dreadful, for example, if an incapicated president (assuming no vice president) were succeeded by a Speaker of the House of the other party -- a good reason for repealing the present Succession in Office Act -- just as it is at least questionable whether a governor should be able to change the control of the Senate by naming a successor from a different political party than the elected senator.

Indeed, South Dakota legislators may have been banking on precisely this possibility: They may be hoping that the case won't make it from the district court to the Eighth Circuit to the Supreme Court until after Stevens leaves the Court and after his successor is appointed by a Republican President and confirmed by a Republican controlled Congress.